Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care
The Small Animal Intensive Care Unit provides care to patients admitted to the Small Animal Hospital that require the most attention. It is dedicated to providing the highest quality care for critically ill small animals. Dogs and cats requiring frequent or continuous monitoring are admitted to the ICU. The majority of the patients are critically ill, but some patients requiring frequent treatments or observation are also admitted to the ICU. All emergency cases are admitted through the ICU.
The ICU is run by Kate Murphy, a European specialist in small animal internal medicine, and Sarah Collins, a veterinary nurse who is a veterinary technician specialist in emergency and critical care. Kate and Sarah are supported by a team of residents, interns, nurses and students who rotate through the ICU.
The veterinary students spend 3 weeks on a canine medicine and intensive care rotation and so get time to know their patients. Teaching is an important part of our work, and veterinary students rotate through the ICU in groups of 3-4 and veterinary nursing students in groups of 2-3.
The ICU has a variety of monitoring modalities including direct and indirect arterial blood pressure, central venous pressure, arterial blood gas, capnography and pulse oximetry, and a patient side laboratory (basic haematology, emergency database including electrolytes).
- The ICU has space for 8 cats & 9 dogs at any one time
- On average there are usually 8-10 patients in the ICU
- There is an average of 1-2 emergency admissions per day but sometimes 5-6